Cassia Cogger has created art ever since she was young. In middle school she won a national contest for a laundry detergent brand. And unlike most artists, she began selling her art early in life.

After college, Cassia abandoned her artistic pursuits and got a job as an editor at a trade magazine. It was during this time that Cassia realized she wanted to become a full-time artist. So she picked up a few odd jobs to support her painting business.

Before her daughter was born, Cassia was featured in a magazine as a rising star in water color. But after her daughter’s birth, she stopped painting as frequently.

It wasn’t until after her second child was born that Cassia got serious about art again. The same art magazine wanted to follow up with her to see what she had done in the past five years. This was the call to action she needed to get serious about art again.

In this episode, Cassia talks about why we need to be open to new ideas, the importance of avoiding complacency and being consistent, and the art of simplification, among many other things.

Here are three things you can learn from Cassia:

We Should Always be Open to New Ideas

One of the things that holds artists back from reaching their full potential is being too closed minded. Many artists only want to learn about one specific thing. They are not open to exploring new ideas.

Cassia used to have these closed minded ideas about art, but after a while, she started believing art can be enhanced by everything around us. “Art is everywhere and can be anything, and to limit it to something like a painting or a sculpture, I was really missing out at that time seeing work. And when I do think when you do say ‘I do this’ or ‘I do that’, you’re missing out as well.”

Many artists are afraid of exploring something new. We like the safety and comfort of the known. Cassia believes this mindset is holding us back. “That entire new world can be kinda scary, right? The unknown is scary. What we know is safe and it’s easy and it’s comfortable, but you’re not growing or shifting or changing or learning.”

During our conversation, Cassia realized that she wasn’t just an artist. She realized she was a learner and explorer. “Having this conversation right now, maybe even more than being an artist, I am a learner… I am the consummate student. I just love information and I love figuring things out, and I love coming to the next eureka phenomena until two minutes later when something else kind of hits me. There’s nothing that excites me more and maybe the creative process or making artwork is what keeps me in that state of openness that allows me to keep receiving new information again and again and again.”

Avoid Complacency and Become More Consistent

A lot of times, we try to do things the same way, even though they don’t work. We repeat the same mistakes because it’s easier than trying to forge a new path for ourselves.

Cassia believes we should stop being satisfied with the status quo. Instead, we need to try something new. “I think a lot of people hit a wall and they aren’t satisfied but… they think they need to go through it, right, instead figuring out that they can build something to go over it or carve a path go around it, or heck let’s burrow a tunnel to go under it. There are a number of people who reach that point and I think it’s very comfortable and it’s fine and wow, that would be awesome.”

Another thing holding artists back is their failure to develop a routine behind their work. Instead of learning how to create work consistently, we try to work when we feel inspired. But routine is essential to becoming a better artist. It’s the reason Cassia became a more creative and productive artist. “You reach this point where I have wanted to buck routine my entire life, and now I’m like so much more productive and creative and just a better person when I kinda have my systems and processes and routines and frameworks in place because I’m not wasting all this energy on trying to figure out the world around me.”

The Art of Simplification

One of the things that plagues most people, especially artists, is our tendency to complicate things unnecessarily. Often times we do so much planning and thinking that we over complicate things.

But the best solution is often the simplest one. Cassia’s art is the result of simplifying the things around her. “Art making for me is distilling my experience. It’s removing the non-essential from the world around me through the process of making, and maybe that’s expressed on the page, maybe I just experience it in the process, but it’s about simplification.”

That is why she relies on routine and consistency. When we create routines, we are able to be more productive. We are able to maximize our time because we are no longer wasting our time on the unnecessary. “In a perfect world, I do find in my perfect world, that routine and consistency just leads to far greater… productivity because I’m not wasting my time on all the other stuff.”

Shownotes

about Cassia

has always been a creative person

mother of two young children who wow her with their creativity

they push her to explore

background in 2D art and art history

got regular job, then turned to commissioned work

personal tragedies forced her to move away from it

started to paint for the sake of painting

realized the power of painting and exploring experiences

morphed into sacred geometrical and mandala painting

first piece of art she created

got in trouble for drawing on grandparents’ walls

turkey tracing and getting in trouble at school

not worrying about the consequences of your art making when you’re young

24:21 “When I was fourteen I was too young to have any fear or to know there would be any challenge. Now to think of approaching galleries, or this or that… once you know the fear of rejection, it becomes much more challenging than when you’re this kid and you’re like sure, what do I have to lose? Why not?”

25:32 “I’m so pleased that I had the experience at the time. But to think of doing it now, it just makes me shudder.”

sharing her work

tries to work from a place of experimentation

introduces herself a creative explorer

doesn’t like to call herself an artist because it can be limiting

loves to push the envelope and explore things from a place of curiosity

used to consider herself a painter

28:38 “At some point you realize that the excitement and that the learning and that the benefit comes through the act of curiosity and of exploring, and if you can’t go in with an open mind, then you are missing out on so so so so much. I would say it’s that shifting from being product driven or product focused, to being processed focused. I often say now that my work is more of an artifact of whatever happens in the making of it versus me coming in with a very concrete idea about what it was I wanted to make.”

the line between being open to creativity and the use of restraints

going deep versus wide and focusing on one thing

likes to work on 100 day projects

it forces you to become creative

30:27 “That has been one of the most powerful choices that I could have ever made because it does force you within those confines to become creative. Because if you can go anywhere, you can scratch the surface on things and not really learn anything from them, but when you have to sit with something and visit with it every single day for three and a half months, you get to know a lot about what it is you are exploring and experimenting with as well as yourself through the process.”

how looking outside of your area of expertise makes you more creative

came from a closed/archaic environment

moving to NYC changed the way she viewed art/creativity

new words can be scary

33:55 “Art is everywhere and can be anything, and to limit it to something like a painting or a sculpture, I was really missing out at that time seeing work. And when I do think when you do say ‘I do this’ or ‘I do that’, you’re missing out as well.”

34:38 “That entire new world can be kinda scary, right? The unknown is scary. What we know is safe and it’s easy and it’s comfortable, but you’re not growing or shifting or changing or learning.”

35:00 “Having this conversation right now, maybe even more than being an artist, I am a learner… I am the consummate student. I just love information and I love figuring things out, and I love coming to the next eureka phenomena until two minutes later when something else kind of hits me. There’s nothing that excites me more and maybe the creative process or making artwork is what keeps me in that state of openness that allows me to keep receiving new information again and again and again.”

choosing to learn vs. choosing to stop learning

she envies people who can find satisfaction

the serenity some people find in being content

exploration leading to further exploration

Cassia being lost in being who she wanted to be as an artist

36:22 “I think a lot of people hit a wall and they aren’t satisfied but… they think they need to go through it, right, instead figuring out that they can build something to go over it or carve a path go around it, or heck let’s burrow a tunnel to go under it. There are a number of people who reach that point and I think it’s very comfortable and it’s fine and wow, that would be awesome.”

38:31 “You need to have discipline and you need to have direction and it is incredibly easy to get lost.”

39:59 “You reach this point where I have wanted to buck routine my entire life, and now I’m like so much more productive and creative and just a better person when I kinda have my systems and processes and routines and frameworks in place because I’m not wasting all this energy on trying to figure out the world around me.”

building a strong container around your life/art

framework/rules/expectations

instructor believes we lack masterpieces because people didn’t have distractions, they had no options

people had to paint during a set time because they had no other options

100 day project and committing to creative daily expression

painting 100 circles

figured out different ways to use paint

42:34 “I know when I have a tight constraint or deadlines, I am so prolific. But if I’m wide open, it’s kinda like ‘Uh, tomorrow. Oh yeah, I’m going to get to it.'”

43:04 “If you can commit to anything… a creative daily expression can do so much because you’re tapping in consistently and each time you tap in, you tap in a little to the left or a little to the right, or you might go in a little deeper and you just learn something every single day.”

44:07 “Being open to what other people might deem failures, you know aesthetically, but really huge successes in the learning that comes from them.”

45:48 “Art making for me is distilling my experience. It’s removing the non-essential from the world around me through the process of making, and maybe that’s expressed on the page, maybe I just experience it in the process, but it’s about simplification.”

46:26 “In a perfect world, I do find in my perfect world, that routine and consistency just leads to far greater… productivity because I’m not wasting my time on all the other stuff.”

her job before becoming an artist

lived with people who got business degrees

interviewed to be editor at a trade magazine

turned out to be a cold calling job

told them she wasn’t doing the job they hired her for, and they fired her

was in magazine before daughter was born as a rising star in water color

stopped painting frequently when she was born

contacted her five years later for a follow up

decided she needed a project

what could she consistently dedicate herself to

chose to do sacred geometry

found connection with herself and a voice that she could sustain

creating a sacred container/vessel and exploring within it

forcing herself to be consistent

What will it take to be consistent?

staging her own show

creating accountability by forcing herself to do a show

56:44 “I think everybody’s different, but for me, having an end goal with a definitive timeline to be accountable to, really helped me. And… I wasn’t willing to put out crap work. So that meant I had to slow down and really tap back into the technical skills that I already possessed but maybe the new knowledge that I had gathered since I had created my last serious body of paintings.”

how Cassia’s class came to be

early 2000’s – opened online store that turned into a big online store

1:03:00 “In this case I see the art making… of your mandala as a form of yoga in that it unites… your physical body… to that deep expressive soul or spirit within that maybe you don’t often slow down and listen to.”

1:04:34 “I think so many people just need permission and direction, so as an instructor, I’m just here to say it’s okay. It’s okay to scribble, to paint, to draw, or be methodical, or express in any way you want on the page.”

1:08:48 “It’s really a fine line when you make art for a living, and you teach art for a living, and then you’re having to step back and be like ‘Oh, I’m not doing what I’m teaching’ or ‘I’m not doing it to the full extent that I could be, so let’s change it up.'”

being comfortable with the uncomfortable/unfamiliar

giving permission to lose control and the safe space of the container

1:11:54 “Just setting an expectation that allows for something that they wouldn’t typically let happen to happen, I think that’s kinda where the magic is.”

1:17:08 “So I’ve had these little inklings about things that I’ve said yes to and they just kind of roll in to the next thing.”

1:17:55 “It’s right down to the way the book came about. I didn’t sit around for years thinking I wanted to write books. I didn’t have a proposal that I went nuts over… It just happened, and I said yes because it was in alignment with what I was already creating.”

favorite quote

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” ― Anaïs Nin

1:34:25 “I think creativity is just a way of being… Creativity works in tandem with curiosity… It’s a way of thinking. It’s a way of acting. It’s a way of interacting. I don’t think it’s a thing. I don’t think it’s necessarily art because people can make art and be very much not creative… It’s a way of approaching the world and it’s an openness.”